Unholy War Read Online Free PDF Page A

without looking back. You know this, Zaqri.’ She swayed up to him, stroked his chest. ‘Do not mourn overlong.’
    Zaqri shifted uncomfortably. ‘Seeress, Ghila and I … we were as one being. Without her, I am only half a man.’
    ‘Then if any of us can help you become whole, you have only to ask.’
    Cym was grateful that the attention was elsewhere as the memory of the awful slaughter last night returned. Her mother, whom she had barely known, was lost for ever. And the others …
    Where’s Alaron?
she wondered.
And Ramita?
    ‘Gone,’ the Keshi girl said, turning to her and answering her thought as if she had spoken out loud. She spoke Rondian tentatively, as if for the first time. ‘ “Alaron” … ?’ she tittered. ‘Al’Rhon: the Goat! How amusing! He is gone, and Ramita also. For now, we cannot follow, not with so many wounded or exhausted.’ She studied Cym. ‘Of what value are you, Gypsy? Are you worth ransoming?’
    Cym swallowed.
Ransom? Might I buy my life somehow?
To her shame, she found that she still wanted to live. ‘My name is Cymbellea di Regia-Meiros.’
    Huriya cocked her head. ‘A Meiros? How wonderful. But of little use.’ She glanced at one of the shifters. ‘Kill her to replenish yourself.’
    Before Cym had time to realise just what was happening to her, the fingers of the man holding her had sprouted inch-long claws – but someone else had clamped a hand around the shifter’s wrist, stopping him from ripping out her throat then and there.
    ‘I claim her,’ Zaqri growled.
    Huriya looked at him petulantly. ‘Zaqri, I have said they may kill her.’
    ‘And I say that we will question her, and after that we might use her to awaken one of our children. Think of the wider gain, Seeress.’
    Huriya acquiesced regally. ‘Very well, dear Zaqri. She belongs to you.’ She looked Cym up and down and added, ‘Do with her as you will. But if she cannot fly with us when we leave here, then she must die. You have three days.’
    Cym blanched. The island was hundreds of miles from the mainland, much further than she could fly using air-gnosis. Only someone in bird-shape could do that, but she’d never changed shape – she didn’t even know if she could. ‘Three days?’ she spat. ‘Just kill me now!’
    ‘Shut up, girl,’ Zaqri growled.

He stared into her eyes and the weight and skill of his gnosis dismantled her mental defences with assured strength.

    Though terrified, she summoned her defiance and tried to resist.

    
he countered bitterly.
    They stared at each other unflinchingly, until she couldn’t help herself asking,

    He shook his head.

His eyes flickered to Huriya.
Normally
, she heard him thinking.
    
she asked tremulously.
    
he replied, with no attempt to soften the blow. Then he focused, and she felt his mental penetration go deeper. He spoke aloud. ‘Open to me, girl, or this will hurt.’
    If she did not open up, she would be crushed and left broken. She let him into her mind. He was like a torch in a darkened room, filling her absolutely, his lion face shining like the sun as he studied her. She forgot how to breathe. Then she found herself humiliated as private moments were dredged up for his study: memories of family, friends, moments alone, her first kiss …
    Then his eyes went wide and he dropped from her mind and turned to Huriya, shaking with excitement. ‘Seeress, I have learned something,’ he announced.
    Huriya walked slowly back to him. ‘Yes?’ she asked.
    Cym could only just make out his words as Zaqri bent his head down to whisper in Huriya’s ear, ‘You have Sabele’s memories so you will know of the Scytale of Corineus. This one has held it in her hands!’
    Near the Isle of Glass, Javon